FUSE Mirrors

The FUSE satellite uses light focussed from FOUR SEPARATE MIRRORS
to perform its task; it's effectively four telescopes working together!
Each of the four mirrors is 39 cm by 35 cm (nearly square) and are ground
into "off-axis parabolas" to properly focus their light into the FUSE
spectrograph.
CLICK HERE to see a diagram showing the
positions of the mirrors in the FUSE light path.

Caption: The photo below shows a FUSE flight mirror in a clean room at the
JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, mounted in its support structure prior to
installation in the telescope.
The mirror assemblies were assembled and tested in the clean room facility at JHU/Bloomberg
on the Homewood campus. (Photo from April 1998.)

Caption: The photo below shows a FUSE flight mirror after coating with reflective
materials but prior to mounting in its support structure or installation in the
telescope. (Photo from Fall 1997.)

Caption: The photo below shows a prototype FUSE mirror being inserted into a vacuum
tank at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where it will be over-coated with
reflective materials. Two of the four FUSE mirrors will have coatings
of LiF (lithium fluoride) and two will be coated with SiC (silicon carbide.)

This photo shows a FUSE Engineering Test Unit (ETU) mirror hanging from the
lid of the 2 meter coating tank at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC). This mirror was about to be coated with materials that make
it's surface reflective to far-ultraviolet light. (Mar. 27, 1997).
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